Comic journalistic work, there are now available on many websites. What was lacking so far, however, was a magazine for journalistic drawn shapes.

This gap is now closed: . Symbolia is the first magazine for graphic journalism The first edition was published in early December 2012 at Apple's App Store, but is also available as an e-paper. Price: 10.99 € for one year (only by subscription).

In it stuck to the roof of five illustrated stories about "Surviving":

- "Sea Change" describes why California's Salton Sea will soon experience an ecological disaster.
- "Secret Species" explores why the evolution in the Congo delta switches on the turbo.
- "Live Long, The Quick" leads in the human gastrointestinal tract and reveals what the microbial buzz has to do with the Slim in us remaining.
- "The Rollerbladers of Sulaymaniyah" offers unexpected contrasts traveling through the Kurdish Iraq.
- "Ask Me About Psych Rock In Zambia" is a musical journey back to Zambia the 70s.

The comic texts are crafted overall quite convincingly implemented and refined mostly with audio. However, there are also things in detail, which could be prepared by covered. For example, one can argue sure about whether it is appropriate for the endemic fish species to show "Secret Vote" just drawn - as I would have liked to have a picture to look at it more closely. Nevertheless Symbolia is fresh and worth more than just a glance.

The question "Why bother?" Answer the makers way on her blog - very true to form as a comic. It will look like this:

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Graphic Journalism: Lined reports - not only for young readers

Graphic journalism comic reportage "Excerpts from Egypt"

Text design on the web is monoculture: Article pages on journalistic sites see today in most cases still the same as 15 years ago - a main column for the text in the middle of the page, a couple of additional videos, graphics, or audio in the marginalia and around a brightly- flashing potpourri of different services. So that was from the beginning, and so it is today. exciting Even the exceptions prove the rule.

The reasons for this designerische bankruptcy declaration are all fully aware of the online editors: content management systems set textdesignerischen creative ideas allerengste limits. Variation is not provided. Who it anyway tackles and converts non-conforming page layouts, its template must manually develop or adapt - an effort which usually appears too large for the editorial production days and is also economically not justified in most cases. Snowfall on, it is rumored, 11 employees have worked for six months - for any normal editorial unimaginable effort.

Users thirst for fresh text design
How much it but thirsts users and users to read friendlier and more varied page layouts, can currently be seen in the exuberant responses to a web report of the New York Times under the title "Snowfall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek" are there, the experiences lawinenverschütterter skiier described - and in a very beautiful text design.

The reactions to "Snowfall" on Twitter.

Same here to talk about the future of storytelling is probably somewhat exaggerated euphoric. Succeeded the report but definitely (by the way not only visually).

The really special thing about this text layout is: it binds the multimedia components consistently in the flow of reading a text. Steve Duenes, graphics director of the New York Times, commented on Poynter.org : "Our goal was to create a Erzählweg that does not contain multimedia detours. The reader should experience the story narrative liquid "Especially disturbing reading the back-and-forth between text and multimedia reception is to be avoided with this layout pattern.:

"Our hope is thatthere's some amount of surprise but thatthis kind of feels natural," said Duenes. "That it does not seem like a puzzle or something did has to be figured out, but as you read it just makes sense. The experience ... sort of Absorbs you. That was really the intention - to try to get closer to a seamless and coherent article did included all of the elements did the article made strong. "

Anyone who reads the story, can only find: The goal has been largely achieved.

Own experiments with Github
Similar approaches were and are indeed quite recently, for example, has the business site Quartz term tablet with page layouts, at least in the professional world caused a stir. similar for The Long, Strange Trip of Dock Ellis on ESPN. And who looks back very far, for example, can also affinities to the "28Seconds" story recognize the St. Petersburg Times about an airplane accident. Nevertheless, as conclusively and convincingly as in "Snowfall" text and multimedia components have so far been rarely linked. This is Webtextdesign of a piece and not just a simple combination clapping different media modes.

Would of course be welcome if the Snowfall model for future special stories not only in the big sites like the New York Times school made, but also on smaller sites for longer stories would be used. Finally, the online journalism is also not in the very best reputation, sometimes simply because it looks bad. multimedia mastermind Julius Tröger has in his Twitter response to the New York Times story pointed out that it is appropriate for their own forms of experiments Online tools are, for example Github. So off.

Update
Julius Tröger just comes yet another example of these so-called parallax scrolling layouts offered by the Guardian. Thanks for the link-tip!

The Atlantic Wire: Interview with Steve Duenes Snowfall layout designers and Andrew Keuneman

The Atlantic Wire: 'Snowfall' Is not the Future of Journalism

Snowfall as a video (10 minutes)

"Cross ... - what?" - Will not go back today asking if by "cross-media storytelling" or "cross-media" is mentioned. Finally, there is the term then but already a few years. Really, the concept is clearly contoured but still not: In Barcamps cross-media storytelling has recently been isolated from many neatly trans-media storytelling, other applies both as synonymous, others juggle afloat with delicate differences for hypermedia storytelling. Yes, what then?

One thing is certain: Out of all the nomenclature confusion exists conceptually for a cross-media indisputable core. It looks like this: There is content - in the form of writing, photography, graphics, sound and moving image as. There are different playout channels - from print and website about app updates, OnAir and podcast, up to Twitter and Facebook.

Tell the mashup media
The digital computer technology now makes it possible, at least in principle, to link all these content with each other and any crop mixes, each play channel accurately. In the web jargon that is then "mashen" content.

Basically, there are so innumerable options narrative. To grasp the concept of "cross-media storytelling" for the editorial practice clear, three of these options seem essential. For this, the following fictional examples of a cross-media working newspaper office:

1 Example: For "Van der Vaart returns to the HSV" there is a current written report including a video interview published on a website page. A content will be told within a Ausspielkanals (website) with different media modes (writing and moving image). That is multimedia storytelling.

2 Example: For "Van der Vaart returns to the HSV" there is in the current issue a verschriftliches newspaper interview. And on a site-page is identical in content to the interview on video. A table is repeated here in several different media Ausspielkanälen in each mode. That is multiple use.

3 Example: For "Van der Vaart returns to the HSV" there is a continuing coverage of several playout. The scenario looks like this: Van der Vaart arrives at the Hamburg airport. From there it is from the previous year a live video stream, embedded in a sheet page on the site. Parallel tweets from van der Vaart fans are integrated as Twitter Wall in this preliminary page. On this "three-component" website (preliminary plus live video plus Twitterwall) identified two following reports: In a press conference at noon, which can also be followed via live video stream on the site, and on the big exclusive interview with van der Vaart which appear in the next print edition. This is then cross-media storytelling in the strict sense.

Cross-media storytelling is so simple a cross-media storytelling. Micro-stories are linked by the media across chasms to macro-stories. Technically, it is important for each recorded point of contact - content and recipient-oriented - use the appropriate media modes respectively. Each completed micro-story can stand on its own, but also is always part of the plot of the broader macro story.

Dramatically, a cross-media macro story must neither necessarily linear (as in Example 3) was applied even necessarily be nonlinear, it is a free structurable text space. With one exception: Simple recycling is not a cross-media storytelling.

And what is the difference for transmedia storytelling? This remains a difficult question to answer. A clear juxtaposition of these concepts do not exist, this cutting abundant quantities. Basically, transmedia storytelling - be understood as synonymous - in the sense of the definition of the term creator Henry Jenkins. At the same time, it seems quite as the non-linear variation of the cross-media storytelling, in any case where the trans-media manifesto, written at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011, is assumed to be valid. It states:

The experiencer no longer follows one dramatic thread but chooses among several intersecting storylines Which merge into a single story-universe.

Either way, journalistic storytelling is in the mashup media extremely flexible, extremely varied - and at all levels much more complex, in the forms, in planning, in the production processes in the art. The classic forms of representation - of the message to reportage - are embedded into a universe of new possibilities narrative, multimedia storytelling is the basic condition for cross-media. The editorial planning is faced with new requirements and must specify, for example, early mediation competently topics for which an increase in expenses is justified. The technique must turn all thought possible actually quite possible and requires appropriate CMS. And then of course it needs more people who understand all this and are able to afford.

Related Links

All Blog Posts on "Storytelling" on this blog

The workers of the FH Joanneum in Graz have investigated together with the agency "vi Knallgrau" from Vienna, to succeed as especially impactful Facebook status updates. For well over 2000 posts the Like Share Comment reactions were counted and from this promising Update text strategies. The results are condensed into practical checklists for daily business communication. And right here:

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vi Knallgrau: New study texts via Facebook

Web users as we are accustomed to flying at the home pages of the first teaser, one or the other to read them and then switch by mouse click or tap on a product page.

On ZDF.de is different: There the still images in the transform Aufmachern in motion pictures by clicking on the heading is a teaser video played.

A nice tool for more holding force on the homepage. Especially of course the day after the football match Germany - Netherlands:



Klose, ...


Mueller, ...


Tooor ...!

ZDF full beauty - real hartstikke mooi.